Camera Club Fundraising?

For all you you in camera clubs, do you fundraise? If so, what sort of things do you do. I'm in a new club and we only have about 6-8 members that actually participate. 5 of us are premium members. (meaning we pay $20 bucks a year) That doesn't pay for much for the club, we're already way in the negative already this year. (entering art fairs, bought a banner, bought a projector, had some info cards printed, etc.)

I'm just trying to think of some good ideas to bring in some extra cash for the club.

At the art fairs are you selling prints? If so do any of the profits go to the club since the club is sponsoring the entry?

That would have worked if people actually bought out stuff! We were going to give 10% or so back to the club.

Never really thought about fundraising. Our club is almost 2 years old and we are saving for for a projector. If anyone has ideas, I would like to hear about them.

We picked one up for $150. It was used but works great.

Anybody else?

We have monthly meetings from the Fall to early Spring where we have local photographers present a casual talk and slideshow. The photographers are generous enough to donate their time at the meetings.

Occasionally we have special presentations, sometimes with the same photographers that were at our meetings. These presentations are more specific in topic and give a lot more focus to the photographer. We are prepared to pay whomever is giving a special talk although one photographer turned down payment. We charge a $10 fee for guests and $5 for members at these presentations, at our last one we had 60 people show up when our normal number is about 15 or so members at our meetings. We are fortunate to have a number of pro photographers in the area willing to give their time, I'm acquainted or friends with most of them. Everyone has a great time, the photographer gets payment and publicity, and our club has enough funds to keep us going for awhile.

We also charge $20 for a yearly membership and gained a number of members during the last presentation.

$20 a year, that's cheap. I once went to a local photography club meeting as a guest. I was blown away by the $60 a month membership fee. As far as fundraising, what about setting up at a local pet shop, and taking pet photos? The pet shop would have to get something out of it, like free advertising in a newsletter or on a website. Put your heads together and do some brainstorming. Ideas often evolve from one thought.

We charge $25/year for membership. But if they charged $60/month, perhaps darkroom time or computer access was included? That I could understand. Without those extras, $60/mth is outrageous.

I have experience running a club and I'm a regular member of another one.

IMO you should only charge if you're providing access to darkroom/scanning/prin​ting equipment. The club I'm in right now charges 25 bucks per year and you get all BW and color chemistry you want WITH cheap classes, access to a printer, scanner and enlargers.

That club was funded by the university about 100 years ago. It was actually needed, since the brownie cameras were popular... and later for electronic microscopy... etc.

I don't know how to start one from scratch. Now most of the equipment is hooked up to digital sensors and there's no need for film development - so good luck getting darkroom space and funding.

As for digital - the costs are minimal. Everybody just prints their own stuff or brings a notebook.

The kind of stuff we need money for was buying our projector, entering art fairs, getting flyers/cards to hand out. etc.